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Explanation to the Flash Movie in my Timeline section

While the screening beam passes over, yellow dots lighting up indicating those places where I had or have some professional relations. The red point marks my present stay and in the right frame appears the corresponding phone number, under which you can reach me. If the hint "DON'T DISTURB" appears, it is either between 20:00 and 08:00 my local time or I am occupied with something that doesn't allows answering phone calls. This function works only properly if you have set your right time zone on your computer, since this flash movie works with UTC (universal time calibrated) and it doesn’t takes in account summer time, since some countries are using it and some not. The left frame shows some pictures of particular events in my life (you need 11 minutes to watch all the pictures). The middle frame indicates the longitude of the screening beam. This flash movie is an example of a remotely controlled application with sensing capabilities.

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Erklärung zum Flash Movie in meiner Timeline Sektion

Die beim Durchlaufen des Abtaststrahls aufleuchtenden gelben Punkte weisen auf diejenigen Orte hin an denen ich beruflich zu tun hatte oder habe. Der rote Punkt markiert meinen derzeitigen Aufenthalt und im Rahmen rechts erscheint die jeweilige Telefonnummer unter der ich dann zu erreichen bin. Erscheint der Hinweis "DON’T DISTURB", ist es entweder zwischen 20:00 und 08:00 meine Ortszeit oder ich bin mit etwas beschäftigt das es mir nicht erlaubt Anrufe zu beantworten. Diese Funktion arbeitet allerdings nur dann einwandfrei, wenn Sie in Ihrem Computer Ihre Zeitzone richtig eingestellt haben, denn das Flash Movie arbeitet mit UTC (universal time calibrated), auch wird die Sommerzeit nicht berücksichtigt, denn einige Länder benutzen sie, einige nicht. Im linken Rahmen erscheinen einige Bilder von besonderen Ereignissen in meinem Leben (Sie brauchen 11 Minuten um alle Bilder zu sehen). Der mittlere Rahmen zeigt den Längengrad des Abtaststrahls an. Dieses Flash Movie ist ein Beispiel für eine fernkontrollierte Anwendung mit Sensoreigenschaften.

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Astronomy meets Astrology

The impulse to deal with astronomical formulas came some time ago because of the necessity to design for a client a device that points a solar–dish always toward the sun. The control device consisted finally in two servo controllers governed by a Basic–Stamp who calculated the horizontal coordinates azimuth and elevation. I found the necessary astronomical formulas in the book "Practical Astronomy with your Calculator" from Peter Duffett–Smith, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0–521–35699–7. Meanwhile I designed also a moon phase calculator in flash, just for fun and because my brain-cells need that stuff, using in part formulas from the same source. Since there are several other moon phase calculators on the net, I decided to make something different, a combination with some astrological data, the western and the eastern zodiac. Concerning astrology, there are believers and non–believers and those how don’t care strongly either way. It is not my intention to indicate any preference. If you are interested in eastern astrology I recommend you to read the book "Chinese Horoscopes" from Paula Delsol, Verlag Helmut Kossodo, Genf. Despite the title, the book is anything but a horoscope, it is a relatively profound character description for every sign in the Chinese zodiac and I was surprised of its high accordance with people born under the respective sign. Before you go to the moon phase calculator here is a brief description of how it works. The calculator starts always in real time mode indicating the actual system time and date of your computer. The moon phase, zodiac signs, etc. refers always to the date and time indicated at the text line above the buttons. You can change the date between January 1, 1900 and December 31, 2099, using the "+" and "-" buttons, then press the "Go" button. This puts the program in delta mode and the moon phase refers always to 00:00 hours that same day. At the top text line you find on the left the date for Easter Sunday of the indicated year, the Julian day number, a description of the moon face and on the right the year under the Islamic calendar. The program updates itself every 15 minutes and returns to real time mode; this is indicated by the stroke of a bell, if you are lucky, you may also see her. The "Bio" button rings at this moment only the bell, but it is my intention to ad in this flash–movie a biorhythm option. After that you may select your birthday, press the "Bio" button and the program returns to real time mode indicating your actual biorhythm +/- 14 days.

Go here for the calculator and explore. By the way, if you would like to include this moon phase calculator in your webpage, feel free to do so and please, add my name and the original URL. Just trop me a line and I will send you the flash movie in any of my five languages. It is available in swf, html or exe format.

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Venus crossing the Sun

The last time it happened 122 years ago, which means at the present there is no living human on Earth who has seen it before and the next time it happen again, is in 2012, Venus crosses the Sun. A good reason trying to document this unique event. Everything was prepared, me, my Olympus camera C750UZ and a handful of unusual filters, including the glass for safety goggles from a local welder (this explains the greenish images). The location of observation was Diourbel, Senegal, a small town about 150 km east of Dakar. The morning of June 8, 2004 was densely cloudy, then, suddenly the clouds dispersed from time to time and I had several chances to take some pictures. Due to the unstable optical conditions, it was necessary to adjust manually aperture and exposure time. The presentation of the pictures is with reference to the horizon plane or coordinates. If you would like to see the trajectory with reference to ecliptic coordinates you have to turn the pictures 90° clockwise.

Ecliptic is the plane which contains the Earth orbit around the Sun, and the approximate orbits of the other planets in our solar system.

These pictures are copyrighted. Permission to copy and publish them on the WWW is granted until explicitly revoked, under the condition that they are accompanied by this or a similar copyright notice, including my name and the original URL.

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Aphorismen – Sayings – Proverbios

Hier kommt noch ein Beispiel einer FLASH Präsentation, für jene die philosophische Gedanken mögen und Liebhaber von Sprichwörtern und Redensarten. Es gibt Leute, die sie als sehr nützlich für Reden betrachten, da sie leicht zu verstehen sind und wegen ihres moralischen Charakters. Aber nicht für jene die gerne eine Rede anreichern möchten präsentiere ich sie hier, sondern um zu meditieren, um von Zeit zu Zeit den einen oder anderen auszuwählen und in die Tat umzusetzen, mit dem Zweck sich das eigene Leben und das der anderen ein klein wenig angenehmer zu machen.

Here comes another example of a FLASH presentation for those who like philosophical thoughts and the lovers of proverbs and sayings. There are people who consider them very useful in their speeches since they are easy to understand and because of their ethical character. But not for those how wants to enrich a speech I present them here, but to meditate, to choose from time to time one or another and put them into practice, with the purpose of making its own life and that of others a little bit more pleasant.

Aquí viene otro ejemplo de una presentación FLASH para aquellos que gustan los pensamientos filosóficos y los amantes de dichos, refranes y adagios. Hay personas que los consideran muy útiles en sus discursos dado que son fáciles de entender y tienen carácter ético. Pero no por aquellos que quieren enriquecer un discurso los presento aquí, sino para reflexionar, para escoger de vez en cuanto uno u otro y ponerlo en práctica, con el fin de hacerse a si mismo y a los demás la vida un poco mas agradable.

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Airline Travel and Radiation Exposure

As a technical consultant I use a series of equipment for measurement, test and registration of different physical quantities, among others a radiometer for monitoring and registration of X–rays. One day, while I was setting up the radiometer for a new test, I was astonished about a high level of radiation registered over a long period, a dose far over that from medical X–ray equipment I am usually working with. A meticulous analysis of the registered data revealed that the registration of that high level radiation took place during a flight from Madrid to Miami. Several months later, on May 16, 2003, I traveled the same route again, and this time I registered simultaneously to the radiation the flight level of the airplane. The following graphic displays two curves, the blue one is the radiation in micro–Sievert per hour and the red one the flight level in feet. The graphic demonstrates clearly that the amount of radiation increases proportional to the flight level, and there is another interesting detail on the graphic, the relative small peak at about nine o´clock refers to the amount of radiation used during the security check of my hand luggage in the X–ray scanner on the airport.

Meanwhile I have learned that flying at high altitudes exposes to a hundreds of times higher dose of cosmic radiation than at sea level because of the thinner atmosphere. There are also indications that cosmic radiation increases with the augmentation of sun spot activity and during solar storms. The next graphic displays registered and predicted sun spot activity between 1996 and 2009. Data for this graphic was made available from IPS – Radio and Space Services Australia.

As a frequent flyer I am concerned about this issue and so are airline personnel. I found in the Internet several sites dealing with that problem, some of them mention studies which says e.g. that pilots and flight attendants are two times more likely to suffer increased incidents of bone cancer or female flight attendants breast cancer, but the studies are not very clear whether it comes from the additional exposure during flying or from the individual lifestyle. In order to understand a bit more, let´s analyze the development of cancer, in this case connected with radiation. Radiation is composed of tree types of particles, alpha, beta and gamma and sitting in an airplane we are primarily exposed to gamma particles while the others are widely absorbed from the airplane structure. Even our skin has the ability to block alpha particles before reaching any vital organ. Cancer is the mutation of cells and its uncontrolled reproduction due to genetic effects. The modification of the DNA code by means of radiation can occur when a radioactive particle ionizes the DNA structure; however our body has several natural defenses against this and also the ability to reconstruct miscoded DNA. Now, gamma particles pass through the airplane structure and our body, normally, without causing any effect. Since the DNA is a very compact and tiny structure, a radioactive particle can only cause some defect under certain circumstances. First of all, it has to have a significant energy level and it has to pass very close to the tiny DNA in order to react with it. Even if ionization occurs and a mutation takes place, the result is usually a death cell, or our immune system destroys with the help of white blood cells the mutants. Should the worst occur and a cell become cancerous, then maybe the body was already latent and the radiation only triggered something else to cause the mutation.

As long as you are only exposed to radiation there is a great chance to stay healthy, things getting particularly dangerous if radioactive particles are incorporated in your body, that means e.g. if you inhale radioactive dust like that from Chernobyl. Those substances will remain in your body for a long time and there is nothing that protects your vital organs.

An ancient proverb says ”the best defense is staying out of range” but this is in that case for airline personnel and frequent flyers not always possible. The only thing we can do is to fortify our immune system by means of an overall healthy lifestyle, doing regularly some exercises and staying positive.

Probatum.

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Nuclear Power and Security Threats

This article is intended to provide more comprehensive information about nuclear threats and world security. The actual discussion whether Iran should have the possibility to handle nuclear material or not, regardless for whatever reason, causes different reactions worldwide, irritation within the political class, uncertainty within a majority of the world population and probably fear within Iran’s direct neighbors. This article is not intended to provide pros or cons, but before passing a sentence you should read and reflect about the following facts:

Worlds Deadly Arsenal

Did you know that....

	Russia posses about 28,200 nuclear warheads.
	United States posses more than 12,000 nuclear warheads.
	France posses 510 nuclear warheads.
	China posses 425 nuclear warheads, 20 of their armed missiles are capable of hitting any country in North America, Africa and Europe.
	UK posses 400 nuclear warheads.
	United States and Russia posses together enough nuclear material to produce an additional 150,000 nuclear weapons.
	Canada helped India build its nuclear arsenal. Canada supplied India with the research reactor. India used to manufacture the Plutonium used in India’s 1974 peaceful nuclear explosion.
	In the 1990’s one new nation, Pakistan, acquired nuclear weapons, but six abandoned their nuclear weapon programs.
	Iraq claimed it destroyed 157 bombs containing deadly biological agents such as anthrax, botulinum and aflatoxin. UN inspectors, however, were only able to confirm that 23 bombs were destroyed.
	That two planes dropping bombs of sarin nerve gas would kill 50% of the people over a 4 sq km area. Or that a Hiroshima-size nuclear bomb would kill 50% of the population in a 30 sq km area.
	Israel now has expanded its nuclear arsenal to include submarines carrying nuclear-armed cruise missiles.
	Between 1988 and 1990 Libya produced over 100 metric tons of blister and nerve agents at a facility in Rabat.
	In 2001 Syria tested a 300 km Scud missile with a dummy chemical warhead.
	There is no vaccine for the biological toxin ricin. Within a day after exposure victims would experience severe respiratory distress and hemorrhaging, and die within 3 days.
	The most serious future threat may come not from ballistic missiles but unmanned planes similar to those used in the Afghan war. Thirty-two nations manufacture more than 150 models of UAV’s (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), many of which could carry a nuclear, chemical or biological payload and could fly undetected beneath any missile defense system.

Interested in getting more information? Please browse through the following web pages:

The End of Existence
Nuclear Files
Asia Nuclear Crisis
BBC News
Carnegie Endowment
The four Reasons Arsenal
Topgun
Strategic Israel

Did you know that appearances can sometimes be very deceptive.

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Pictures, Movies and Sounds

West African Birds Madrid Waypoints Saigon Borobudur Singapore
Please click on the CD and download a sample video clip from the DVD "Dancing with the Clouds" in a new window (2.7Mb) ….

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Credits

This Webpage was created in HTML and Javascript using the following programs and resources:

Advanced GIF Animator V2.8 from Creabit
Wordpad and Paint from Microsoft
Wavelab Lite 2 from Steinberg
Flash MX from Macromedia
My Provider is Greatnet
MGI Photosuite V8.1
Ulead Videostudio
SELFHTML V8.0
SELFHTML V8.0
SELFHTML V8.0

I downloaded the wallpaper "earth at night from space" for my flash movie in the HOME section from somewhere on the Web. I forget where (maybe the NASA) .... but props to the guys and girls who made that picture.

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